Poor Little Rich Girl
by SweetHarmonee
Summary: Even before ShinRa, Scarlet was ruthless and ambitious to fault. As a teenager, she would use any means necessary to fulfill her goals and her affluent family only helped shape her into the cruel, violent, and status-conscious woman she is today.
1. Chapter 1

Scarlet was blessed with many of the privileges that other sixteen year-old's on the planet had been denied. She was intelligent, making straight As in school with little effort. Her prowess on the piano could rival anyone. She was tall, beautiful, and posh in her imported outfits and cosmetics. No expense was spared for her stylish shoes and one-of-a-kind dresses. During the winter she frequented the northern continent to ski. Several times a year, she sailed to Mideel just to relax in the hot springs. Yet, she was a "poor little girl" who had been referred to me after an almost successful suicide attempt.

Scarlet strolled into my office dressed in a rosy sundress and carrying a clipboard with her own notepad. She introduced herself with an overly assertive tone and a firm handshake. Then she sat in the chair across from me and made the exaggerated motions of therapist taking notes, which she would continue throughout most of our session.

I asked her if she knew was she was in my office.

"Of course." She replied, not even attempting to hide her sarcasm. "I swallowed a bottle of pills."

"Your parents informed me that you nearly died."

Scarlet let her mouth drop open to feign a look of shock. "I can assure you they were being melodramatic."

"Why do you think that you did it?"

" _Think_?" She paused in her note-taking to look up at me and give me a look filled with ridicule. "Now, now doctor, let's not be coy. We both _know_ why I did it."

"Fine." I wanted to shake my head in frustration. "Then tell me why you did it."

"Well, I didn't intend to kill myself, if that's what you're thinking."

"Then why?"

"I was angry with my family. I want a gold chocobo for my birthday. Nothing too expensive. They wouldn't buy me one." She smiled victoriously to herself. "Now they will."

"Did they explain why they initially said no?"

With her elbow propped up on the armchair, she pressed her fingers to her forehead and shook her head back-and-forth slightly in frustration. "My family has plenty of gil, as I'm sure you're well-aware. They're only saying no in an attempt to teach me some lesson. It's really quite infuriating."

"Tell me more about your family."

"Sometimes, they really expect me to behave like a normal teenager; keep up with my schoolwork, clean my room, stay within my allowance, be home before curfew. That's utterly ridiculous." Her voiced was filled with what seemed to be sincere outrage. "Mother does nothing of real importance all day and hires staff to take care of the errands. So why should I be expected to have all these responsibilities?"

Scarlet had a common problem that many children from affluent families experiences - she expected to be given anything and everything she wanted. People from more humble families learn through childhood that not everything they desire is a necessity - it's not a luxury that 99% of the population can afford. But from what she had mentioned about her mother, I felt there were other problems not rooted in gil. I asked her to share more about her family.

"My parents are in a loveless marriage. Father is traveling constantly for work and he's rarely home. Mother despises him, but she enjoys the wealth." She sighed with boredom and paused in her note-taking to put her glossy blonde hair into a casual bun. "Mother relishes in revenge. When Father has been away from home too long - she buys herself jewelry, shopping sprees, spontaneous trips across the planet. Ironically, Father buys me presents when his trips extend far too long." She held her wrist up into view so I could admire the gold chain around it. "This was a present. I believe Father was only gone for a week when I woke up to this gift-wrapped on the edge of my bed."

Scarlet seemed to be following her parent's example. Her entire life she had been taught to invest her emotions into material things, not other people, and striving for luxury instead of love. She never learned how to appreciate social relationships of any kind, and I was unsure if she ever would. Scarlet needed support - more than just the nice clothes and fancy vacations. She had no appreciation for her peers and was completely self-centered. She learned that happiness comes from using others, leaving her to live her life without any real emotional connections.

Later in our session, we spoke about her goals for her future. True to form, she wanted to run a business like her father and be extremely wealthy. She wanted a beach house in Costa del Sol, a chalet near Icicle Inn, a walk-in-closet full of luxurious gowns and her own helicopter.

After our hour was over, I was very surprised that Scarlet agreed to schedule another session with me. "What's your interest in coming back?"

For someone with as quick of a wit as her, she was hesitant to answer me; perhaps she was cautiously wording her answer, or maybe she was genuinely unsure herself. "It feels as if you actually care about what I have to say. It's rather interesting."

I ended our session with, "Think about what you would like to talk about next week."


	2. Chapter 2

Scarlet arrived with news that she was very excited about. "I got my present a few weeks early. His name is Maximilian and he's absolutely gorgeous! His golden feathers shine in the sunlight! And they say he's intelligent, and that he'll be easy to race. I just wish they would build a stable for him; I don't want to have to visit him at the chocobo ranch. He's still a baby chick and I want to take care of him."

I laughed and suggested that maybe she was a more caring person then she pretended to be. In fact, I let her know that I suspected that this whole chocobo ordeal was associated with a subconscious yearning for love and affection.

Her carefully arranged facade fell and she stared at me in silence.

I obviously hit a nerve, so I pushed further. "So, how do you feel about what I just said?"

"Don't ask me those generic questions."

"I'd like to understand how you really feel and what you actually value in life."

"Power," She said earnestly. "No, I really meant to say wealth. No, not that either. Control. I'm not sure which I value most."

I gently suggest to Scarlet that all her social relationships are based on manipulation and personal gain, and that she had no relationship with anyone or anything based on genuine care. That perhaps her want of a pet like Maximilian was to help fill that void.

Surprisingly, she agreed. "I'm a realist - I get that from my Father. Men only want to sleep with me. Women want to be seen with me to be more popular. My family wants me to continue the glory associated with our name. You're having these conversations with me because my parents are paying you to. Maybe you're right about Maximillian. Perhaps it'll be refreshing to have something in my life that isn't expecting something from me or using me for their own benefit."

I was so caught off guard by her incorporation of me into her response, that I was uncertain of how to respond. Disagreeing with her would have only proved futile.

Thankfully, Scarlet voluntarily moved onto another topic without the need of my response - she began to speak about her parents in more depth. Her father was concerned with her need for therapy and couldn't fathom why he didn't have a happy daughter. Before starting his excavation business in the Mythril Mines, he had lived most of his life impoverished, and really couldn't not understand why Scarlet was so ungrateful. He couldn't believe that all their luxury wasn't enough, so he continued to purchase her anything she wanted in hopes of buying her happiness. Scarlet would refer to him as "weak, too easily manipulated, and a fool".

She was no less critical of her mother, who she felt was "scheming, but unambitious". Scarlet lacked respect for her mother not only because she was dependent on her father for gil, but because she was content with their wealth. "I could never stay with a man solely for his gil and I would never stop wanting more power. I want my own gil, my own power."

I asked Scarlet what the most important thing she had learned about relationships from her parent's examples.

She was quick to answer. "That love doesn't exist. "

And with that, I had decided it was nearing time to end the session. For our next meeting, I suggested that she recall and write down any memories she had of social interactions from her everyday life that did not benefit either party. She did not feel confident that she'd be able to recall any, but I urged her anyway.

I didn't feel comfortable about out progress when Scarlet left. I had to find someway to help her restructure a value system that had been instilled into her mindset since birth. A value system that had obviously failed her. I needed to discover how to show her that relationships could be based on positive emotions - happiness, joy, and many other immaterial riches that could not be bought with gil. I had planned on asking her parents to come in together for a session.

But a few days after our last meeting, I received an email from her father's assistant. Scarlet had tried to kill herself again. Her mother refused to let Scarlet celebrate her birthday with a extravagant party on the beaches of Costa del Sol, so she swallowed another bottle of pills. This time her father sent her to Mideel for rest and relaxation. I suspect her birthday celebration took place right on schedule. And I never saw her again.

* * *

". . . we shouldn't always have what we want: it spoils the best of us, doesn't it?"  
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall


End file.
